Avatarika
यदि अस्य अयं स्वभावः- सर्वसंसारधर्मशून्यता, परो-पाधिनिमित्तं च अस्य संसारधर्मित्वम्; यन्निमित्तं च अस्यपरोपाधिकृतं संसारधर्मित्वम्, सा च अविद्या- तस्याअविद्यायाः किं स्वाभाविकत्वम्, आहोस्वित् कामकर्मादि-वत् आगन्तुकत्वम्; यदि च आगन्तुकत्वम्, ततो विमोक्षउपपद्यते; तस्याश्च आगन्तुकत्वे का उपपत्तिः, कथं वा नआत्मधर्मः अविद्येति- सर्वानर्थबीजभूताया अविद्यायाःसतत्त्वावधारणार्थं परा कण्डिका आरभ्यते-
In plain words
Suppose this really is the Self's own nature: entirely empty of every property that belongs to a life caught in transmigration, and whatever makes it seem otherwise comes only from some alien conditioning pinned onto it. And the thing responsible for pinning those transmigratory properties onto it — that is nescience, avidyā. So the question has to be put plainly: is this avidyā simply built into the Self, or does it merely arrive, the way desire and action arrive? Because if it merely arrives, freedom becomes possible after all. But what grounds are there for calling it a mere arrival — and, for that matter, why isn't it simply a property of the Self? To settle, once and for all, what this avidyā really is, the seed from which every evil grows, the next section now begins.
Close to the Sanskrit
If this is the Self's own nature — utter emptiness of every property of transmigratory existence — and its having the properties of transmigratory existence is caused by an alien conditioning adjunct; and that by which its having transmigratory properties is brought about by an alien conditioning adjunct is nescience — then, of that nescience, is it natural, or, like desire and action and so on, is it adventitious? And if it is adventitious, then liberation becomes possible. But of its being adventitious, what is the justification, or how is nescience not a property of the Self? — In order to ascertain the true nature of this nescience, which is the seed of every evil, the next section now begins.